Maharashtra reports 8,807 cases, highest daily COVID-19 spike in 4 Months

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 8,807 fresh Covid-19 cases, highest in 129 days. At least 80 deaths were reported which is highest in two months since December 24, when 89 deaths were reported.

With this, the total cases in the state jumped to 21,21,119 and the toll touched 51,937.

Mumbai also saw a three-month high in daily Covid-19 cases. It reported 1,167 new infections, the highest in 119 days.

Nawab Malik, minister for skill development, said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray instructed all districts to increase testing and contact tracing.

According to the health department, despite rise in average cases in February, the case fatality rate (CFR) is low. The daily average of cases in January was 2,973 and the case fatality rate was 1.7%. The daily average cases are 3,347 and total deaths reported in February are 775, taking the CFR to 0.4%.

Mumbai circle on Wednesday reported 2,018 cases, highest in the state, followed by Pune circle with 1,811 cases. Akola and Nagpur circles from Vidarbha region that is currently the eye of the storm saw 1,679 and 1,323 cases, respectively.

Two variants of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) namely  N440K variant and E484K variant have been detected in at least three states in India, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry said that there was no evidence to show that they were responsible for the fresh wave of infections.